Red Riding Hood

In a distinctively dark and menacing version of Perrault's classic tale, the unfortunate little girl is confronted by a clever and hungry wolf. All ages.

Grade 2 Up-- Another dark, cryptic interpretation of the well-known tale. In contrast to the familiar Grimm version, Perrault's must be read as a cautionary tale with an expressed moral that warns young children, especially girls, that the most artless stranger may prove to be a salacious scoundrel. It ends with startling finality when the wolf consumes the child. Coady's retelling is simply worded and contains a few changes: it is raining, it is dark, and Red Riding Hood ``feels the wolf's eyes on her'' before she meets him. Coady's illustrations are stylistically remarkable and ?- powerful. Done in acrylic on board, his pronounced brush strokes give richness, texture, and depth to his interpretation. In an exceptionally dark palette, the red of the cloak and the gold of the interior lights glow; the atmosphere created is one of bleak foreboding. The wolf changes from a harmless, fluffy-looking creature on first encounter to an attenuated predator with luminous eyes. In closeups, Red Riding Hood is not a carefree moppet, but an enigmatic child-woman. It is unfortunate that the black text is superimposed over the illustrations making it, in some cases, difficult to read. This is less of a conundrum than Montresor's version (Doubleday, 1991), and more faithful in intent, since Perrault's ending and the appended moral are retained. It is also less grisly and therefore may be suitable for younger audiences. Coady is clearly drawn to this tale, which becomes haunting and symbolic in his hands. A noteworthy artistic debut. --Kate McClelland, Perrot Memorial Library, Greenwich, CT
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

In a stylish debut, Coady draws on one of the bleaker versions of this classic fairy tale for artistic inspiration. Like Beni Montresor's recent retelling (Children's Forecasts, Sept. 27, 1991), Coady's honors the Perrault tradition, which provides no woodcutter to save the heroine and her grandmother from the belly of the wolf. Here, the cautionary tale serves as handmaiden to the artist's visionary approach, which is marked by an extraordinarily sophisticated use of light and shadow and accentuated with intriguing, conspicuous brushwork. These characters inhabit a dreamy, twilight world that teeters on the edge of nightmare, but Coady judiciously leaves the horror of his protagonist's fate to the readers' imaginations. Instead, he focuses on a few spare details--the red cloak abandoned on the bed, grandmother's spectacles tossed aside on the floor--that in no way diminish the power or pathos of the final scene. (One caveat: because of the artwork's overall darkness, the text is somewhat difficult to read.) Though the read-aloud set may prefer a kinder, more humane version of the tale, adults and older children will find this variation--and Coady's forceful vision--satisfyingly chilling. All ages.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

In his first book, an English artist stays close to Perrault in a spare, graceful retelling with full-bleed double-spread paintings that--like Montresor's art (1991)--emphasize the story's link to the world of dream. Coady's hazy, unfocused figures appear in the background of his roughly textured art, or as shadows or close-ups centered on such telling details as eyes. The superimposed text is not always easy to read on the dark ground, and the phrasing of the concluding moral is pedestrian; still, a dramatic setting that powerfully evokes the tale's inherent nightmare quality with its deep, luminous colors and suggestive shadows, leaving specifics to the imagination. (Folklore/Picture book. 4-8) -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.